


Manifest Period

by MissIzzy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Great Manifest Period, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:58:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissIzzy/pseuds/MissIzzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be the new great period of Republic history. It didn't turn out to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Old and the Young

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off what I read about the Great Manifest Period from the history of the Star Wars galaxy(taking place roughly 20,000-17,000 years before the movies), though I may not keep the history exactly as it is depicted in the EU, especially in more recent sources.

**Coruscant, 19,072 BBY**

 

Since his appointment to the head of the Committee of Expansion Region Affairs, Senator Oshk Diamint had learnt much about the newest region of the Galactic Republic, but more about what they didn’t know.

He kept several two-dimensional maps of his committee’s subject on the walls of his quarters, and a projector loaded with a full three-dimensional map in the middle of his living room. Often when he mind was worn down with issues, he would turn it on and wander in circles, around and through the newly discovered stars and systems, passing through the large gaps where noone had even properly charted anything yet. In two different corners of the map were written numbers instead, the estimate of how many stars were in that area.

On an easy access file in his personal computer bank sat all information on all species and societies charted in the region. It was far too small a file for such a great expanse of the cosmos. They knew much more about the moons and asteroids and natural resources than about the natives.

Oshk had been in the Senate for most of his adult life, and he was approaching 90 years of age; fairly old for his species. Yet this was by far the highest position he had held in his life, and he was prouder of it than he had ever been proud of anything.

He had been widowed for nearly five years, and he kept a holo of his late wife and three fully grown children by his bed. He didn’t see any of the children half as often as he wanted to, especially not this youngest, his daughter Yott. But she came to Coruscant shortly after he was appointed, with good reason, as she would soon be heading out to the Expansion Region herself. She worked for Tapos Securities, which centuries ago had sponsored countless probes sent out to map the outer galaxy, and now was the sole claimer to a number of planets that had since been opened for colonization.

They met in one of his favorite restaurants, Motto’s, which several months ago had taken to the air in the manner that had become newfangled in the most recent years, building a small version of itself which was what was apparently called a skyhook, and launched out from its original location and then circled around the Kishi District, which meant one had to arrive on the hour, but such was no problem for either father or daughter. 2200 found the two of them settling into their table in the corner and exchanging jokes about strapping themselves in, though the smoothness of the takeoff was remarkable.

“Been too long since I’ve been here,” said Yott.

“May I point out, dearling, that neither of us have ever been here at all,” her father said, waving his hands at the rising barrier that surrounded them. Below them the city was falling away, though inertial dampening had kicked in(Motto’s would never have been cheap enough to have a skyhook without them) and as a result it didn’t feel like they were moving at all. It was a little surreal, actually, and Oshk had known some of his colleagues to get queasy on skyhooks, though he personally didn’t see the difference between this and normal space travel. “You haven’t even been on a skyhook before now, have you?”

“No, they haven’t even reached the Sistooine system yet, I think.” The Sistooine system was where most of Tapos’ offices off Corellia were now located, and where Yott had lived for the past five years. “Too bad; this truly is an amazing view.” She was leaning over the edge as she spoke; bent much further and she would have made her father nervous. “Don’t hurry to call the waiter over.”

Oshk didn’t, but he didn’t have to; Motto’s had the best and most efficient service in the entire Senate district; in no time a splendid silver droid waiter with the most pleasing voice was asking if he could take their order. Yott hadn’t even looked at the menu, and as it had been a number of years since she had last been there, she absently remarked, “I’ll have whatever you’re having, papa.” He ordered them both the sweet duck, which he knew would take some time; he wanted to stay there as long as possible.

Eventually, as she had to, Yott finally got bored with the view, as novel and breathtaking as it was. Though before then, it did pique Oshk’s interest when he saw beings of sizes and species run out onto balconies and up onto higher platforms to get a closer look at the skyhook as it glided past. One being with wings even tried to fly after them, but couldn’t keep up. From his patchy garb Oshk suspected he wasn’t in this area regularly; he might have never before seen this incredible new apparatus.

“So,” he said, “how did your visit home go? Did anyone recognize you?”

“Papa, you haven’t been back to even anywhere in the Rim for nearly nine years, have you?” He couldn’t deny that, and was grateful when she plowed on. “I don’t think most of them even remember your name anymore, and I was able to go anonymously. I was more identified with my employer than with you; they’re making inroads on the local workforce, especially on Myt’s.”

“I sometimes wish your mother and I had taken you and your brothers there more often when you were young, to Bilbringi at least; we were there so often, and it was where you were born.”

“Bilbringi?” she shrugged. “I was there in an official capacity just last month. Which actually makes me wish they’d be a little more flexible in letting us plan our itineraries. Can you believe it, papa, first time in three years I’d been in my home sector and they wouldn’t let me go anywhere but Bilbringi. Even if I paid for it myself, and I offered to. No, they needed me back as soon as possible, they insisted.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, dismayed.

“Oh, you want to interfere?” she shook her head. “Is that right, for you to do that?”

“Come now, dearling, what’s the good of being the daughter of a Senator if you can’t take advantage of it every now and then, hmmm?”

“I don’t want to,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not going to be like Toshki, comming you every other week because some big client didn’t want to buy from him.”

“I don’t allow that anymore, Yott,” he told her. His older son was a bit of a disappointment that way, but at least he was now making enough he didn’t need his father to make sales for him anymore. “And I know you’d never do that. I’m just saying, if someone’s treating you unreasonably like that, you shouldn’t be ashamed to get help.”

“Well, I’d still rather not,” she said, and he could tell that was the end of it. “Besides, if I did things like that, they might not have given me this opportunity. I wouldn’t have deserved it either. You need to be self-dependent to work in the Expansion Region. You need to be a quick learner, and a self-starter, and good under pressure.”

“You earned your new assignment, didn’t you?” he agreed. He had known that, that it had been extremely competitive between the company’s employees to get to do this, and that she had worked her butt off, and gotten it without his help, and he knew she had to be proud of that. And he was proud of her; he hoped she knew that. “I hope your colleagues know that.”

“Those of them that know me know that,” she said, which wasn’t very reassuring; in a company as mammoth as Tapos Securities, most of the employees were strangers to each other. “In any case I had very kind words from a few of them. One woman said she’d miss me.”

“Then she’s not alone,” he said softly. The thing that really made him sad, though he didn’t want to bother her too much with this, was that she was going to be gone at least twenty years, and while it wasn’t impossible she might come back inward during that time, nothing was guaranteed. And when she’d hinted she might be away still longer, maybe even another decade or more, well, it was hard for him to sit there and talk calmly with her when he was aware that he might never see her again.

It was on her mind too; gently she reached across the table and placed her braceleted hand on his. “I wish you could see it, papa. Not just as a big map in your quarters, but for real. Me and a couple of the guys I’m going with have stood in a virtual recreation of some of the places we’re going to, and there are places the such of like I’ve never seen. We’re going to learn so much from the Expansion Region. We’re going to be a different civilization in another century than we are right now, and when things change so slowly now; it hasn’t been like it was when your grandfather was alive, but I may have children after all, for the galaxy I would give them! The Republic I would give them!”

Yott seemed very young then to her father, as he watched her eyes light up and sparkle in a way they rarely had since she’d entered her chosen profession. He felt both a rush of gladness and a rush of grief, for he wondered if she could be happy living within the old, settled part of the Republic again.

Next to their table sat a young couple, and as he first glanced down the skyhook to see if their food might come, though he didn’t really expect it yet, Oshk’s eyes happened to fall on them. Their garb was a distinct sort which allowed him to easily identify them as from Telfelda, a small, isolated planet on the very edge of the Rim. The size and thickness of the chain around his neck and the amount of jewels her extensive hair was done up with bespoke their considerable wealth, yet their faces were awed as they looked around. Sometimes it seemed everywhere he looked, even here on Coruscant, the galaxy was indeed growing and transforming.

“Have you met any of the people from the region yet?” he asked her.

“Not yet,” she said readily, “but not too many of them are venturing off their worlds yet. For a few of them this is the first they’ve even learned there are people on other planets, though of a lot of them had contact with each other. Can you imagine what this must be like for them, what we’ve brought them? Everything has changed for them, in a way we can’t even comprehend.”

“Perhaps our ancestors could have,” he commented. “Back when the Republic first came to them.”

“Oh, could they even imagine?” she laughed. “One of their descendants in your position. Overseeing the welcome of new species into the Republic, they way they themselves were once welcomed?”

Here, however, Oshk found himself saying only, “Remarkable indeed,” for he wasn’t allowed to discuss, even with his family, that not all of the new races the Republic had come into contact with were jumping to join. In fact, a few of them had made clear they didn’t want the Republic anywhere near any worlds they could lay claim to, and there were disputes over planets that were uninhabited, over whom they might belong to. Nothing that was likely to affect Yott immediately, though sooner or later it probably would, and in any case if the Republic was to fulfill the dream of its Founders, then these people had to be dealt with, though Oshk didn’t yet know how.

If any trepidation escaped, she didn’t notice it. She was still lost in her idealistic hopes. From what Oshk understood, she really wasn’t likely to meet too much with the natives day to day, though they would be introduced. But he couldn’t help but think that if she was who represented the Republic to them, after the sometimes arrogant and sometimes not even very smart ambassadors they’d probably be meeting with so far, it could only improve their image. Even as a Senator’s daughter, she was doomed to be associated at least a little with that level no matter what she did.

Their food was served, and she ate slowly. He watched her close her eyes as she chewed, savoring it. “One of the worst parts of this is going to be the food,” she commented. “The company’s going to be feeding us. They cut costs however they can. Of course, they’re spending so much money on this particular thing you can hardly blame them, and I wouldn’t even mind if I would just be able to eat something else sometimes, but there won’t be anything else available.”

“If it endangers your health...” Oshk started uneasily.

“Oh, I don’t think it’ll go that far,” she shrugged, but she didn’t sound entirely sure. She looked back over the side of the skyhook, trying to determine just where they were. “Where’s the pond?” she asked. She was talking about Stratos Pond, which had been her favorite place in the district as a kid; she’d spent hours diving in it, beating her brothers in races until they refused to race with her.

It broke his heart to have to tell her. “They’ve dried most of the ponds, dearling. They were interfering with the new electrical system too much.”

“What?” Her head bobbed about with disbelief. Then it jutted with anger, as she growled, “That Birr and Tornik!” She had apparently heard something about their getting to contract to rewire practically all of Coruscant. “Why did Coruscant ever let them pulverize their systems?”

“Dearling, they were breaking down all the time. And this is not a planet that can manage at all when the power breaks down. The way it’s set up now, people can’t even get water without power. Something had to be done.”

“They should’ve gotten someone else to do it!” She was getting worked up about this, far more than he would have imagined. “Birr and Tornik are lying hacks! Did you know they’re trying to lay claim to nearly 500 stars systems, none of which they have any rights to; the courts will laugh them off, no doubt about it. Oh...” They were now passing over the stretch of green where the pond had once been. “It’s changed so much,” she sighed. “I barely recognize it. Will it be gone completely by the time I come back here?”

“I don’t know, dearling,” her father sighed as they started to float away from that once-loved place. “I don’t know.”

 

####  **Elsewhere on Coruscant, the same day**

 

“If we don’t, Tapos Securities almost certainly will. Or one of the other three will; everyone’s preparing to solidify their claims now, and there’s precedent for worlds being considered given up if they’re left unsettled long enough. We go now, and we keep the other four companies off the planet, by the time the court actually gets to even look at it our claim will almost certainly supersede everyone else’s.”

“And how are we going to keep the other companies off, hmmm? Especially if they arrive with the police?”

“What police? This is the Expansion Region we’re talking about!”

As the debate raged on, Hoorir Domine, the president of Domine Supplies, listened to the board argue with a sinking heart. The truth was, he was getting a feeling that if the company was to avoid becoming hopelessly crippled, it would have to do something illegal. After all, the laws were not written for the benefit of smaller, young Coruscant-based companies, in fact, quite the opposite.

He wished now he’d never taken them into colonization sponsorship. But it had seemed the most logical thing to do at the time, the place where all the money was. Fifty years ago Domine Supplies, a very young but already prosperous company then, had funded the system mapping for fourteen high-water planets, with the understanding that when the time came, they would have a claim for colonizing them. It was a pitifully small amount of worlds; most of the Corellian and Alsakan-based companies involved in the Expansion Region had some sort of claim on over a hundred planets. But the other forces in the region weren’t willing to let them have even that small collection; half their planets had another claimant. They’d lost two of those already in the courts to a company that had better lawyers than they did, and their analysts told them they weren’t likely to hold onto a third. They apparently had a chance with a fourth and fifth, but for the money they’d put into this, they  _needed_  Holt.

The planets on the border of the Rim and the Expansion Region but further from the Slice were the worst; practically all of them were disputed in the courts, and Border Alpha, informally known as Holt, which was in the aptly named Border System, had five rival claimants. The case had been sitting on the court dockets for nine years, and no one expected it to be heard anytime soon.

Caras Fel, the man who was urging them to ignore the stay placed on colonization and send their people there, had all but hurled a holo-imager into the center of the table, one of those new tiny ones that could be carried around in one’s pocket, and was automatically activated by the movement. An image of Holt stretched across the table, the magnificent blue of its vast oceans casting a glow on everyone seated around it.

“Ten and a half thousand kilometers diameter, and over four fifths of it water,” he reminded them. “We have no other planet, there is no other planet known about in the entire Expansion Region, that has that much water on it. And are we to just sit back, and let the other four companies, which, may I remind you, include both Birr and Torik and Trink Hydrogen, who ought to have been disqualified from this when they were caught bribing judges, but got off with a slap on the wrist, and are sure to do it again, now are we going to let them take everything, just because they can? No, we must do this. The worst they’ll do is fine us for it, and by the time they get around to that we’ll probably have made more than enough money to cover it. We cover that planet with enough people, it won’t be possible for them to remove us; the Republic is letting the private sector handle the Expansion Region specifically because they don’t have the resources to, people!”

“Caras,” said Rion Latts, one of the other board members, “the way you speak...correct me if I’m wrong but you sound like you think the Expansion Region is essentially going to be lawless.”

“It’s the frontier,” said Caras. “Don’t be so shocked.”

“But what about the safety of our people?” Hoorir felt the need to ask. “I don’t want to be reckless with that.”

“We’ll send security with them, of course,” said Caras. “There are companies now that are specifically training personnel to protect clients settling the Expansion Region. I hope nobody is naïve enough to be shocked when I observe that even on those planets where the only other presence is the natives this has often proven very necessary, though thankfully that is one thing we need not concern ourselves with anymore, at least now that we’ve lost Charra.”

“Are these companies willing to be an accessory to an illegal colonization?” asked prim Kryna Chantalle. Hoorir suspected she would vote against this no matter what, though he was still grateful she’d asked the question.

Across from her, it was Limos who answered. “I believe some of them are doing so already. However, you cannot ask them to commit themselves to being legally liable; there must be for them some plausible deniability. We would not outright tell them there is a stay involved, and we must make the conversation careful enough so that we neither lie to them not give them any reason not to assume from that conversation standing alone that we are acting within our rights. They would then neglect to check.”

“That,” said poor young Kristen Domine, a relation of the family new to Coruscant, “is the most shameful thing I have ever heard.”

“The most?” demanded Caras, leaping to his feet again. “Ever? So you’re telling us it’s worse than big Corellian companies with more money and less right blatantly walking into our hard-earned claims and taking away what’s rightfully ours? Worse than those in the Senate who are supposed to protect the rights of their people letting them do so, and then, when we fight back, saying that we are the ones in violation of the law? Worse than what we all know Birr and Torik really did to get that deal to rewire Coruscant?”

“We don’t know that,” Hoorir cut him off sharply. “We cannot assume such a rumor is true without any real evidence.” But he was sure most of those in the boardroom believed that rumor anyway.

“True or not,” sighed Rion, “we going to get into relative moralism? Because this is starting to sound like it.”

“This is relative moralism,” added Kryna.

“And the alternative?” Caras continued to argue. “You all know where the high route may lead us.”

“Bankruptcy,” said Limos grimly.

“Can we be certain of that?” asked an anxious Kristen.

“Can we be certain of anything?” shrugged Limos. “But if we lose all these court cases, and these planets, the charts start looking very bad.”

These words settled a feeling a dark necessity throughout the boardroom, and Hoorir knew then exactly what would happen. Sensing his cue, Caras said, “I motion for a small force to be send to Holt, officially for scouting purposes.”

Hoorir felt a brief flash of intense relief, that at least they would keep up the appearance of not violating the stay; scouting parties weren’t outright forbidden, after all. But it wasn’t a deception that could be kept up very long, even if they insisted on it later in court, where it might or might not escape as not disproven.

He momentarily hoped no one would second it, but Limos did. And when it came time to vote, he raised his hand, as did everyone except Rion and Kryna. He caught Kristen’s eyes as she hesitantly raised hers; she was a girl who was learning very fast.

“Motion passes,” he said, and tried to ignore the chill up his spine, the sudden fear he’d doomed his company. “We will equip them for an indefinite stay, as we should not be yet able to determine how long they will need to stay there.” How easy it was, in the end, where he already knew how to craft this order while technically remaining within the law. Theirs was hardly the first “scouting party” sent out like this, and he was not so naïve as to believe his was the first who planned to stay longer than they claimed. Uneasily he wondered what would happen if one of the other four couples did what they were doing. If one of them already had a group en route.

They went through the rest of the meeting’s business as best they could, but Hoorir didn’t think he was the only mind who was feeling a little shaken by the decision they had just made. He had to force himself to pay attention and a couple of times more than one of the other board members looked like they weren’t.

When the group broke up, his first thought was Kristen. Only her third meeting, and she had gone through this. He saw how she rose slowly, as if she was unsteady on her feet, and even with the people he had to push past and exchange quick good days with he caught up with before she was halfway to the door. “I believe the two of us are going to the same district tonight. Shall we share a cab?”

“Yes, absolutely,” she said, sounding grateful enough. She didn’t even ask why he was going to the CoCo District when he lived all the way in East Minor. The reason for that, too, she would probably eventually find out about, but there was more than one reason he wanted to prevent that for as long as he could.

In another lucky stroke, they managed to flag down a cab flown by a Thursite. This reptilian species, newly joined to the Republic, rarely knew much Standard, and couldn’t even hear it without ear implants, which would allow them to speak freely.

“Are you disappointed by the behavior of the company today?” he asked her when they were underway, out of earshot of everyone besides the driver.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I never really thought about things like this before. But then again...” she drifted off, and for a moment he didn’t push it.

She then spoke again anyway. “It’s this planet itself. I thought it was such an amazing place...and it is, it really is. But it can be such a scary place too sometimes.”

“Just keep to the upper levels and you’ll be a lot safer,” he told her.

“So I’ve been told,” she sighed. “But there’s so much ugliness up here too.”

“And then, wow,” she continued, and he looked to see what she was gazing at. He didn’t blame her for being awed by it; they were passing the new Netalusa Tower, a structure impressive enough with its long, sleek walls that flashed lights in between windows, but the tower was also surrounded by a circle of nine little pods, which purely by some clever gravitation trick(Hoorir couldn’t remember the details) circled round and round the tower, contracting in and expanding out in a regular rhythm that could be discerned if one watched them do it long enough. Hoorir wondered if anyone could actually stay in those pods too long without getting motion sick(maybe some species might be insusceptible enough?), but they were something to watch. 

“They’re made of a special metal, unique to an Expansion Region world,” he told Kristen. “I think that’s how they do that.”

“We’re going to find so much there,” she said. “People and things and such. But...”

“No history lack ugliness,” he told her. “Do you think everyone who first founded our Republic over five millennia ago all were perfect noble people who wanted nothing but good things for every single person they ever met? That they never had any interest in their own gains and ambitions? Remember there were a good number of people involved.”

“I know they weren’t,” said Kristen. “I’ve read about the war, and the battles. Though I wonder if I would’ve liked to be one of those people.”

He would have liked to have asked her more about that, but they were now reaching where she was staying in the Coco District. Her building was another new one, though as far as he knew there wasn’t anything special about its material or structure or even technical amenities. In fact, the one time he had been in her apartment he’d thought it surprisingly small and uncomfortable, but so far he knew she hadn’t spent much time there anyway. Tonight, he knew, she would probably only stay there long enough to shower and change before going out on the town, or at least going over to meet with her new friends, the young beings that were staying in the apartments adjoining hers who liked the same things and did the same things as she did. He understood there was a sense of community in the place; there was even a large open-air space in the middle for them all to gather in, and that regular meetings were held there.

In fact, as they closed in, he spotted a pair of young women on one of the terraces, who waved, and one of them appeared to call out. “Dzaen and Iti,” she identified them to him. “They just moved here from Chazwa. It’s better for them here; lesbians still aren’t entirely welcome on Chazwa, which after three thousand years is an outrage, but what can you do? I wonder what they’re up to tonight.” When they reached the complex’s dock(they had a dock too, though most newer building complexes had them); she didn’t even wait for the cab to settle in before she had already leapt out, leaving Hoorir with the entire tab, of course, barely stopping long enough to wave and call goodbye.

Hoorir continued on as he always did these days, down further to the cheaper apartments, the residencies of those who cleaned and serviced the facilities in CoCo Town. He hoped Aggtlya would actually be there; she sometimes wasn’t because she’d been forced to work extra hours, or had gone to help one of her neighbors who had a problem, or twice so far had even been evicted.

But no, he reassured himself, with any luck she should be there, and while Kristen flitted about and explored up above, Hoorir would enjoy a much quieter evening with a mistress who he believed had no real idea who he was, and certainly acted like it, which was the more important part of their relationship for him. His company’s profile had risen so rapidly in the past few years that proud as he was of it he’d often had trouble coping; a few hours out of that was now something he needed to keep himself sane. He wondered if all company presidents felt that way these days. The galaxy growing was an exciting thing, but sometimes he wondered if it was entirely a good one.


	2. The Big Headline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> News breaks that night.

Aggtlya was there, and in fact she already had dinner started; Hoorir walked in to the smell of barfish and  _tosfoil,_  smells he associated so strongly with her it warmed his heart and drained the stresses of the day out of him, even before she emerged from her tiny kitchen, the only room in her apartment besides her main room and the even tinier fresher-both times she’d been evicted he’d offered to pay for somewhere better, but she was too proud to accept something like that from him. When her soft, pale form emerged, with the warmest of her smiles, and clad in only one of the two levels she always wore outside the apartment, he forgot all the days’ woes completely, and thought only that he was a very lucky man to have this woman in any way at all, even if marrying her wasn’t practical.

Though he did wish she was less critical of his cleanliness, when she walked up to him, sniffed carefully, and said, “Shower before dinner, mylove.” It was really strange of her, considering she’d lived in the downlevels all her life(she talked about how when she was ten her parents went out of their way to take her upward enough to properly see the sun, and how she rarely did) and just about everything down here was dirty. But apparently she’d read something by some traveling wisebeing once(a lot of those visited the downlevels these days, where they were arguably a menace), who had emphasized to her and to the others he had met the importance of being clean to health, and when she, sadly, had lost her only child to disease, she had taken to his words zealously, spending over an hour each day scrubbing her apartment no matter how long she’d worked or how tired she was, showering twice a day despite the bill, and lecturing everyone she met on it, even as she admitted her first eviction might have had to do with her doing so.

Hoorir didn’t argue; just headed for her fresher and got the water running. Aware of her water bill he tried to go quickly, but he found he enjoyed it, the feel of the hot water pounding him mixing with the smell of her cooking getting close to ready, and the sound of her audiofeed as she turned it on to listen to the evening news. She didn’t have visual, and had said once it was nicer because it meant she didn’t have to watch any more pompous asses posture about.

Until he turned off the water he couldn’t make out any words, though he recognized the voice of Ants Ryder, anchor for one of the many rival news shows currently engaged in a cutthroat battle for viewers/listeners. He was the type that catered to the young listener, like his niece; he didn’t know if she listened to him much, but she’d once mentioned one of her friends was crazy about him. Not the type he’d expect Aggtyla to listen to, but perhaps she’d picked him out at random; he was pretty sure she did that sometimes. Nor the type that suited him much, but he hadn’t come here to listen to the news, and, on the contrary, he found he didn’t mind in the least having an newsbeing who wouldn’t bother him with too many headlines that were relevant to his daily life.

When he emerged it sounded like he was talking about some celebrity who might be pregnant without an obvious candidate around for the father. Apparently there were people who disapproved of this whom Ants Ryder felt the need to complain about, though Hoorir doubted the celebrity herself cared much what those people were saying about her.

He was still talking about it when Aggtyla came back out of the kitchen. “What would we do if I got pregnant, I wonder?” she asked, lightly, but maybe she was more worried about it than she let on.

“You wouldn’t have to worry,” he assured her. “I’d take care of both of you. You know that.” Even if he couldn’t promise he would be able to acknowledge the baby publically, he would certainly make sure he or she had a good life, and he would try to be there as a father as much as possible.

That might not have been what Aggtyla had meant, of course, and as she looked wistful, he asked anxiously, “You’re not actually pregnant, are you?”

“Of course not,” she snapped. Then she sniffed, and said, “Lastmeal’s ready. Sit down.”

Aggtyla’s table wasn’t really built for two, though at least she had found a second stool somewhere. When she put the plates down, they were pressed against each other, and whenever they both had their heads forward to eat they were practically breathing each other’s breath. Of course it wasn’t as if either of them minded this. Hoorir loved the intimacy he felt from it, the way her breath was all over his face when they talked in whispers about her day and neighbors and mother, and the novel they’d both been reading in their spare time, though, as Hoorir had noted to himself more than once, neither of them had much of that these days, albeit for very different reasons.

The audiofeed remained a pleasant background drone initially, drowned out by the whispers and even the taste of the barfish; she’d made them perfectly, and his own opinion they could have been worthy of being served in Coco Town’s finest restaurants, though he was aware others might not agree. At one point, when they heard Ryder mention Tapos Security, Hoorir felt the urge to listen closer, but suppressed it;. If it was really important, he reminded himself, he was sure to hear about it the next day.

It wasn’t until she’d cleaned her plate and he’d nearly cleaned his(people down here didn’t let any food go to waste) that there was a momentary pause in the radio chatter, which there hadn’t been, so it got his attention. And then Ants Ryder said, “Brother and sister beings, I have literally just now received word of some shocking news. Fighting has broken out in the Slice!”

“Oh no!” exclaimed his companion; she was soft in her heart. Hoorir had no time for sentiment; he was already running mental calculations about their holdings in the Slice. Since they’d lost Wing Besh in the courts, all but three of their planets were in the area, and six of them were on the two big trade routes. He quickly shushed his mistress so he could hear details about where the fighting was going on.

“Information is limited right now as to just where the fighting is,” Ryder continued, much to his listener’s frustration. “We have been assured it is confined to only one solar system, but I don’t know that we have any source of news about this other than the corporations, and given how many times their claims have turned out to be untrue, I hope they’ll excuse me if I’m just a teensy-tiny bit skeptical.”

That truly made Hoorir furious, hearing some ignorant radio head spout such assumptions, when he bet Ants Ryder didn’t actually know anything about the Expansion Region or any of the people he was making his veiled accusations against aside from whatever he’d heard from other people and other media sources, half of which were obliged to sling mud at the enemies of whoever was giving them sponsorship money. Of course everyone got a lot of mud on themselves that way.

“Do you think it’s spread out further?” Aggtyla asked him, sounding far more anxious about the matter than she ought to be. He shushed her as Ryder continued, “Three corporations total have expressed a belief that their people are involved, though all three insist they are awaiting confirmation,” he sounded skeptical about this, which put Hoorir in two minds; on one hand, he did know bigger corporations did put off confirming things like this longer than necessary, on the other, you wanted to wait to be sure about news from the Expansion Region. “Tapos Securities says it is concerned about the activities of all of its employees located in the Cyrillia System, where Birr and Torik and MobiSec also hold offices, and they too have expressed concern, with Birr and Torik even going as far as to say they have confirmed injuries to multiple personnel, while declining to give any details, citing medical privacy.” Which is was only right for them protect, Hoorir thought crossly, as he then added, “They do insist, however, that so far there have been no fatalities.”

“Once someone dies they can’t keep that concealed for long,” Hoorir told Aggtyla, which made her look a lot easier.

“This is a developing story,” Ryder was concluding, “and we hope for more details shortly, and of course I’ll announce anything else I find out as soon as I know it. Perhaps I’ll even have more information after this break,” and the audio feed went into advertisements.

“You want to listen further?” he asked her, hoping she’d say no; he scooped up the last of her dinner to swallow while she answered.

She looked surprised as she said, “I would think you would.” She knew more about who he was and what he did that she once had, unfortunately. Or at least she made good guesses; she was no fool.

“I can hear it all from more reliable sources tomorrow,” he said, and actually went to turn the feed off. She made no attempt to stop him, and on the contrary, cleared the dishes off the table and went to wash them. She took a lot of time doing that, of course, even when he went to the bunk and lay down, but it was just as well to only lie there and clear his mind of what he’d just heard, because now was when he wanted to forget all about it, concentrate on the feel of the hard bunk below him and the smell of dinner still lingering in the air and the sound of the sink running and Aggtyla moving about.

He would have kept himself from thinking about it, he was sure, had Aggtyla been able to keep her eyes open after they were done making love. But it must have been an exhausting day for her; she fell asleep within five minutes. Hoorir would have liked to do so himself, he felt tired too. But the day and the news had left him in an unfortunate state he got into sometimes, where he just could not turn his brain off long enough to drop into unconsciousness.

For an hour he tried. He thought about relaxing things, other evenings he’d spent here with Aggtyla. He thought about being at home on Lansono, which he hadn’t been back to in far too long, about spending many hours in his childhood scratching about in the sandpit behind the housing complex his family had lived in and run. He thought about the pictures he’d shown Kristen. Then without intending to he spent a few minutes wondering what Kristen was doing at that moment. It wasn’t that late; she and her friends might not have even had dinner yet, and they’d be out for hours still. That wouldn’t help him sleep, though, so he forced himself away from thinking about it and tried thinking about the calmer places in Coruscant that he sometimes went to when he had a break during the day, like the little park near Domine’s offices, or the walkways attached to the building’s upper terraces that were often deserted in the late mornings and early afternoons; sometimes that felt like the only place on Coruscant where he wasn’t crowded in by all the large amounts of  _people_  who lived there.

Finally he had to give up. With something like what had just happened in the Slice he had to at least talk to someone before he would get any rest that evening.

The corridor outside Aggtyla’s apartment was so narrow Hoorir couldn’t have spread his arms out completely; he didn’t think any larger species lived in this building. He had the feeling sound would travel through the walls, but it wasn’t like anyone here would really understand what he was talking about. He hoped. Still, as he commed Limos, who he knew would answer, he reminded himself to speak quietly.

Limos, too, had heard the news, and he’d already made a few comms to certain friends he had. Also to the other members of the board, but so far the only one to respond had been Kryna, who had told him to bother her again when he could say just how his news affected Domine Supplies. “The actual conflict is between Tapos and Birr and Torik,” he said. “MobiSec is more or less just caught in the crossfire. The real worry is if it carries over to all the other places in the Expansion Region where both companies are present. They both have claims on Holt, by the way. Also they both have now undisputed rights to worlds near four planets for which our claim is undisputed, and also near Yanoi. The worst case is Taqala Dorn, because they’ve split the other four planets in that system between themselves; Tapos has the inner two, Birr and Torik the outer two, and ours is right in the middle. On the other hand, we could conceivably turn that situation to our advantage, if they decide to come to our planet to buy for their conflict rather than fight it on our soil.”

“Would that we could be that lucky,” sighed Hoorir, somehow he doubted they’d be. They never were.

####  **Roughly the Same Time, Senate District**

The president of Birr and Torik, Yalcow Sigury was sure, did sometimes go and handle these issues himself when they were on this scale. But a lot of the time he seemed to have his reasons not to, and when that happened, it was almost always Yalcow who went in instead. And he didn’t see how he could object, not when he was pretty sure no one else in the entire company had his ability when it came to this sort of thing.

Of course, he was the sort of guy who timed his arrival at the end of Senator Diamint’s open hours, which the silly creature let go on for far too long anyway. Many individuals who played his role for other companies would have been surprised at his doing this, thinking it would mean he would have to hurry through his words and try to impress someone who, after a long day, would be more impatient and less inclined to listen. And it was true that he had to deal with a much crabbier Senator than they did. But even when he was in a hurry for his day to be over, Senator Diamint was burdened with a nature that would not stop Yalcow from accompanying him out to his car, so he often ended up with more time than he would had his meetings with the Senator taken place entirely within the chronometer. It also meant not always having to deal with his aides, whom he sometimes let go ten minutes or so early. Also, his words would be what Senator Diamint thought about most on his way home.

It was true, on the other pod, that being predictable also had its own set of problems. Especially when the moment Yalcow stepped into the Senator’s office, having passed too many other people on his way in, but at least cheered the harried aide up and sent her on her way home smiling, and, more importantly, grateful, Senator Diamint smirked and said, “I knew you’d be here right now, at least once it became clear you were the one being sent. I ought to advise you: I have already talked with two different parties from Tapos, as well as one from MobiSec, and six more from other companies also concerned with this new development. None of them spoke highly of Birr and Torik, and I have heard three different outrageous accusations, two of which I can’t say I automatically disbelieved, though I admit they did seem farfetched.”

Those sounded like the kind of accusations he couldn’t address without consulting with the higher-ups first. Best he stick to his talking points. “I doubt,” he said, “that those three claims will be anything I ought to dignify with a response. Although I suspect I know what Tapos Securities will claim, indeed, perhaps, as well as their official representatives, you have heard from your daughter on the matter.”

“I have not talked with her since the news broke,” the Senator told him coldly. “I suspect right now she is asleep, and has not heard anything yet. And if she knew about anything beforehand, which, by the way, I doubt,” that was indiscreet of him, to even say that much, but at least he only finished, “she did not impart her knowledge to me. The representatives told me they found evidence that your people had been on Sauff, which they have contracted with the Cyrillians for exclusive control over, and they decided to travel to your offices on Cyrillia to request an explanation, and when they requested entry to your main office building in the capital, they instead received blaster fire and two of their people were injured. They are still gathering information what happened next.”

“Did they tell you the manner in which they requested that entry?” Yalcow responded. “I don’t think they did. They didn’t come to the normal entrance for guests. Instead they showed up at the employees-only entrance, and with their guns loaded and pointing straight at us. We’re not even sure who fired the first shot, and I doubt they are either. Also, I have certainly heard nothing about Birr and Torik making any kind of intrusion onto Sauff, and I can’t imagine we’d ever do so, if only out of respect for the locals, which, by the way, we have more of than Tapos Securities does. Are they sure it was us who made the intrusion? Did they confirm they have evidence for more than just some company was there, that it couldn’t have been any of them besides Birr and Torik?”

“Well,” said Senator Diamint, “I can tell you you’re wrong about one thing. The three surviving members of the party all swear your people fired first.”

“I certainly never heard any such thing,” Yalcow replied. Momentarily he wondered if they had, but that wasn’t his job to know that. Instead, he could add, “I admit I have not been told they fired first either, but if we fired first, I assume I would have been advised of that before making this visit.”

“Are you calling them liars, sir?” the Senator asked, lightly, and dangerously.

“I’m not saying that necessarily,” he replied, equally lightly. “After all, in a situation like that, rare is the species whose memories will be completely accurate afterwards. And once of them becomes convinced they fired first and says so enough time, the others may find themselves remembering it that way too, even if they didn’t initially.”

“True,” Senator Diamint conceded. “Now, how do you explain why within an hour of blasters being fired on Cyrillia, similar violence erupted between you and not only Tapos Securities, but also MobiSec, on four other planets? As I said, Tapos said they have insufficient information to give anyone an official account right now. Are Birr and Torik quicker with the facts?”

Here, at least, Yalcow has been provided with higher ground. “That is in fact my reason for coming here,” he said, “to complain about that. While I admit I have not been told directly who fired first on Cyrillia, I can say with absolute certainty that on at least two of those, our pair in the Prazhi system, MobiSec attacked us first. And I mean without any provocation at all they came to our doors, took our their blasters, and informed us that were to evacuate that system or they would forcibly remove us. We asked what grounds they had for dismissing us, and they claimed the locals wanted it. We told them they would have to do better than that, and they opened fire.

On Prazhi itself they at least only used stun guns, and no one was seriously hurt before they were repelled, but on Prazhi IV we have four injured, one in critical condition; he may even be dead by now. I do not know what MobiSec has told you on this matter, but I am sure it is only a matter of time before the entrance monitor footage is recovered, and will prove this; we take it for all of our offices. Indeed, I wonder why Tapos Securities does not do the same; then they too would be able to present it and then you would have no need to doubt whatever true events they told you of. Or have they? You have not mentioned anything about them having footage.”

“They did not say anything about it,” said Senator Diamint, neutrally, but surely he knew that meant they didn’t have it. With many a politician, in fact, Yalcow would now be confident that he had won, that the being he was talking to would promptly assume the wronged party on one world was the wronged party on the other. But Senator Diamint, when he was a fool, was a fool in the opposite manner, by being too clever, and assuming there must be some catch, some detail to the situation he did not know, possibly one Yalcow was keeping from him, and his suspicions of the activities of Birr and Torik were as likely to increase as to decrease. And while he might claim himself as completely unaffected by his daughter’s employment, no being at all could be; unconsciously, at least, his mind would search for excuses to not lay blame on her employer.

And it was not a good sign when the Senator’s next words were, “I believe my office hours are now officially over. You will not hold me here unreasonably, I would hope.”

“Of course not,” he said, and took himself out of the path between the Senator and the door. But as he put several datachips in his pocket(newest design, Yalcow noted; they each probably had an amazing amount of data in them), he continued, “If they don’t have it, quite honestly, I think that by itself is suspicious. Did their cameras fail at such a remarkable time? Or do they not have them at all? If they do not, sir, quite honestly I see that as even more suspicious of them. When one considers the ways in which, sadly, some of the natives behave, having security cameras is simply a common-sense safety measure, and I can think of only a few reasons they wouldn’t have them, none of which reflect well on them at all.”

“I will look into all of that, then,” said Senator Diamint, walking out of the office, but not trying to run, so it was easy for Yalcow to follow.

As he did, he mentally ran through all the points he had to make; there was time for two more. He chose them quickly: “There are two more things I would like to say, Senator, very important things. The first is that we in fact are not entirely surprised by this turn of events, because of things Tapos has said to us before. No outright threats, mind you, nothing we could have reported, not even of the ‘it would be a shame if this terrible thing happened’ type; they were more clever than that. But whenever we’ve met with them to negotiate the handling of things on neighboring planets and neighboring star systems, they’ve always been a little hard-edged, emphasizing about how they’re not afraid to defend their rights, and sometimes they’ve said that about rights they don’t have.”

“Do you have any examples recorded? That would be enlightening.”

Yalcow wasn’t sure if the Senator was mocking him or not on that one, but he could play that game. “I can search for them,” he said. It might be a good element of surprise to show up next time with a recording in his hand. Or it might backfire, if the Senator was in the wrong mood that day, but it was probably worth it to search for the recording anyway.

For now, he went on, “The second is that we also are concerned about another one of our offices. The one on Metellos. As you no doubt know, practically everyone involved in the Expansion region has offices there. Ours are very close to MobiSec’s-I’m talking twenty minutes walking at most. The last contact we had with them was about an hour before all this business started, which was a routine transmission; they check in with us every thirty hours. Since then, we’ve called for a report in for all our offices-can’t be too careful, you know. Everyone’s responded but them. It could be for any number of reasons, of course, but you must admit these circumstances are suspicious.”

“Not much I can do with that kind of information right now,” said the Senator. “Of course, if anything comes of it, I am sure news will come to me very quickly. If I see you tomorrow morning, should I brace myself for distressing news?”

He was mocking him, but calling him on it would probably be a bad idea. “If I do visit you tomorrow morning, I am afraid it most likely would be.” They were heading down the plank towards the car, now, so Yalcow stopped his step, and said his last words, “I just hope you’ll be watching the news as your prepare for bed tonight. It is pretty late, of course, but they’ll provide you with a more complicated picture, being more objection than anyone who’s spoken to you so far.” They might genuinely be, the general newscasters. At any rate, they would make a good impression of being to those who wanted to believe them to be so.

“I always watch or listen to whatever I think will inform me the most,” smirked the Senator as he climbed into his car. “My aides have been making recommendations lately; I don’t need any from you.” That finality silenced Yalcow as he detached and fly away.

####  **Also Roughly the Same Time**

It had been roughly four hundred years since a young citizen of the Tonlow District had built a media empire around his home, and even after it had eventually collapsed, all the organizations and structures had more or less survived, and remained the main purpose of that district of Coruscant. The current headquarters of First Coruscanti News was in the building he’d run his emergency backup broadcast headquarters from. There was a holo in the middle of the entrance hall of the man, and most of the rooms similarly had artifacts on display, most of which were even protected by law, until it was a joke among the staff that it was just a good idea not to touch anything that looked like it was a little old, because you ran the risk of arrest. Not that anyone ever had been arrested for destruction of historically protected property, as far as they knew, but newer employees tended not to know that, and older employees tended not to tell them.

Not that Rtyyttle O would’ve dared touch any of those things anyway. The problem with being a Faranel was the inhabitants of the greater galaxy always got anxious when you touched anything. Never mind that the residue her enders left, while thicker and more visible than that of most species, didn’t really contain anything damaging and mostly evaporated after half an hour or so-it was very close to human sweat in chemical makeup.

But she’d come to Coruscant, leaving her home world in the Deep Core, and Rtyyttle loved it here. She loved the hustle and bustle and diversity and change of this planet, so different from Gio, where only Faranel lived, and life was dull and predictable. She loved her job, too, and her co-workers were starting to get used to her. As was she to them; she no longer minded how high-pitched their voices could sometimes get, and despite initially being mutually repulsed by each other’s smells, she was especially becoming friends with Mana Wox.

Still, she was surprised when she hurried in that night, called in due to the breaking news, and found her friend standing by that holo, not even staring at it, really, just facing it while her face looked like it was a thousand light-years away-Rtyyttle was starting to get good at reading human and near-human faces like it, as well as a couple of other similar species. “What is it?” she asked, stopping by her. There was a new intern, who stopped and looked at her funny when he heard her voice, but she was past getting upset about that sort of thing now.

“Nothing,” said Mana, in that voice that made Rtyyttle certain it was something, but probably not something she wanted to discuss here. She made a mental note to bring it up later, next time they went out together.

Which might not be for some time now. Possibly days, or even weeks, if this sequence of events turned crazy enough.

In fact, there wouldn’t have been time to talk about this anyway, because a face popped itself into the room. “O! Wox!” called Yup Synders. “You’re both wanted on Level 5!”

The building had six levels, but the sixth was mostly dedicated to managing the technical details of their broadcasting; the big offices were all on Level 5. But he hadn’t said the Head Office, so Rtyyttle tried not to get too excited. On a night like this, there were probably all sorts of things going on on Level 5. Most of them dedicated to the top news story, perhaps, and she had already expected she’d be involved with that, but that didn’t mean she was necessarily getting the big role, or that Mana was.

Although Mana looked mostly human, and might even be mistaken for a human with her hair artificially dyed pure-laser red and styled to stick like hard reeds out of her head, in fact what was one her head wasn’t hair at all. Rtyyttle hadn’t entirely understood what it was when Mana had tried to explain-the Enavci word for it was  _tou_. It gathered a lot of sensory data, making Mana especially sensitive to things like air density and temperature, things most species couldn’t easily sense. It also shook when she was nervous.

All through that lift ride, it was rattling so hard Rtyyttle’s ears started to hurt, although she thought that was possibly the sound pitch as well; for some reason it the sound was higher than it usually was for vibrations. She was relieved when they reached the fifth level and the amount of din was relatively low; there was a crowd of people in one corner of the corridor talking, and she could hear further murmurs behind most of the walls, but no shouting or loud droids or computers.

The current head of the organization, a Corellian by the name of Chet Zuyrns, actually had a device in his office which report to him when anyone got off the lift on the fifth floor, so they weren’t surprised when he stepped out of his office and beckoned. The three of them had to crowd together to get in; the office wasn’t exactly small, but the sheer amount of shelves and bins meant it was not a place with comfortable standing room for three people. That surprised Rtyyttle; she would have thought this place would be more accommodating that way.

Until Zuryns said, “You two should count yourselves as privileged. This is only the second time I’ve held a meeting like this here for the last three months. I wouldn’t, except there are no cameras here, and the walls are soundproofed. What I tell you were are about to do does not leave this room until we are ready to do it, do you both understand that?”

“Yes,” Ryyttle told him, and Mana repeated it, but her  _tou_  started shaking again, and harder than before.

“Very well. Now as you know, when it comes to covering the affairs of the Expansion Region, we, along with the rest of the settled galaxy, have always had to rely on media reports from the companies overseeing the settlement and development of the planets there, especially since it can in fact be very hard to get any reporters actually out there. However, I have decided it is time for some independent reporting on what it going on there, starting with the Cyrillia System.

Now,” he continued, “we do not think it is safe to send you there right now, when the fighting might still be going on. But hopefully within a couple of weeks’s time, order will be restored. When it is, we have managed to get a ship, and we will hire a pilot to take you two to the Cyrillia System. We haven’t worked out the details yet of where on it you’ll go and who you’ll talk to; unfortunately we’ll be dependent probably on MobiSec to give us information with which we can make those determinations. Not ideal, obviously, but we have no source besides these companies, so we’ll have to work with them.”

Mana had stopped bristling once she’d heard they weren’t going immediately, but she didn’t look that excited either. Ryyttle didn’t get it. She could hardly believe her own ears. Coming to Coruscant had been amazing enough, but to see more of the galaxy… “Whenever you say, sir, I’m ready,” she said, not even trying to hide her eagerness.

Thankfully he just smiled at it, and said, “Good. I suggest in the meantime you too start doing as much research as possible. Everything that’s available. We’ll make a new building on those foundations, I suspect. They might be the ones going to the Expansion Region, but we’re the ones who bring true knowledge of it back.”


End file.
